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Quinoa Salad

12:38:00 AM

A friend of the hubby gave us some special spice from the Middle East known as Sumac. In case you are wondering what is Sumac, it is a bush native to the Middle East which bears these red berries. The berries are dried and grounded into powder form and it has a sour lemony flavor and you can use it to marinate meat like lamb or beef but from my google search it is also used as a topping on a Fattoush Salad. I'm not sure where we can get sumac here in KL but I would think Ben's Independent Grocers or Jason' Food Hall may have this if you would like to give it a try.

We love eating healthy as much as we can so last night for dinner I made a Mediterranean inspired quinoa salad to go with the sumac marinated lamb. I've never made a quinoa salad but I gave it my first try yesterday and it was super easy!

What I love about the quinoa is you can pretty much throw anything you can find in your fridge in with it and get creative. I always have cherry tomatoes, lemon and olives as staples. So I just decided to add a couple of other ingredients to finish it off. Lamb to me is pretty meaty although it was a small piece (I love greens more than meat) so I wanted the salad to be really fresh and chilled well.

What you need for the Quinoa Salad (Serves 3-4)

* 1.5 cups Organic Gluten Free Quinoa

* 10-15 Cherry Tomatoes cut into halfs

* 2-3 stalks Fresh Parsley finely chopped

* 10-15 Black Olives sliced in to discs

* 3 bulbs Shallots or 1 bulb small red onion chopped up

* 100g Feta Cheese crumbled up

* Wedge of Lemon for juice

* 1 tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar

* 3 table spoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

* Sea Salt & Pepper to taste

Place quinoa into 3 cups boiling water for 10-15 mins until quinoa has fully absorbed the water. Scoop some up to try the texture and if it's not at a perfect soft state add in a little more water and boil till it is fully absorbed. Remove and let it cool down. Combine all ingredients together once quinoa is cooled to a room temperature, toss and chill for min 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!